Edema disease and diarrhea typically are common diseases amongst animals raised by breeders. For example, edema disease in weaned piglets is typically caused by shiga toxin—encoding Escherichia coli (STEC) strains encoding the Shiga toxin type 2e (Stx2e) (MacLeod et al., 1991, Vet Pathol 28:66-73), while secretory diarrhea in newborn and weaned piglets is typically caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains (ETEC) encoding for heat stable (STa, STb, EAST1) and/or heat labile (LT) enterotoxins (Gyles and Fairbrother, 2010, Escherichia coli. In: Pathogenesis of bacterial infections in animals, ed. Gyles C L, Prescott J F, Songer G, Thoen C O, 4th ed., pp 267-308. Blackwell Publishing, Ames, Iowa; Nagy et al., 1997, Microb Pathog 22:1-11). Some pathogenic strains express both the Stx2e genes and enterotoxin genes and therefore may be capable of causing symptoms of edema disease and those of diarrhea in the same animal (STEC/ETEC) (Barth et al., 2007, Berl Munch Tierarztl Wochenschr 120:307-316).
A deficiency associated with many conventional therapeutic or prophylactic compositions and methods for intestinal bacterial infections associated with symptoms of edema disease and/or diarrhea disease is their low reliability or efficacy. There is therefore a need for an improved therapeutic or prophylactic compositions and methods for edema disease and/or diarrhea disease.